


When They Fuse

by Inside_Lions_Mane (IwillYURIforYAOI)



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: (Is meant to be read as Pearl/Rose), Angst, Fusing, Other, PLEASE do not retag as Pearl/Steven if you bookmark this, arguably post Mindful Education, character death mention, it is NOT meant to be read as Pearl/Steven, post Know Your Fusion, post earthlings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 15:06:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8628964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IwillYURIforYAOI/pseuds/Inside_Lions_Mane
Summary: Pearl wants to fuse with Steven after she meets Smoky Quartz. But then Rainbow Quartz starts to see something odd.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry about the really vague summary, I'm really not sure how to describe this! It's honestly really just vent work that I wrote late the other night and wanted to share. Like I wrote in the tags, please don't read or bookmark re-tag this as Steven/Pearl.

Steven didn’t know why Pearl wanted to fuse with him so badly.  
After he and Amethyst fused, Pearl had started sending odd looks his way, the two whispering at odd hours. At first, the human boy had thought it was a good sign: the two were becoming incredibly close lately which was a good thing after their fairly rocky past, but now, almost a month after Smoky Quartz had met the rest of the crystal gems, they were still doing it.  
And then Pearl approached him, casually asking if they wanted to fuse.  
“Really?” Steven asked her excitedly, his eyes widening. “Yeah!”  
They decided to go out to the beach and the two began dancing, hesitantly at first, feeling each other out. And then Pearl twirled toward him and he caught her, tipping her back with a huge grin on her face and their physical forms began to meld together, swirling around each other until they settled on a form. Rainbow Quartz.  
She looked down at her new form and almost immediately she burst into tears, her new body shuddering and unfusing immediately and throwing Steven and Pearl across the beach away from each other.  
“Pearl?” Steven called out, lifting his head from the sand. Pearl just laid face down, her shoulders shaking with sobs. When he went to comfort her, she just looked at him sadly and brushed him off, her hand tracing over his before she ran inside and shut the screen door behind her. It took two weeks for her to leave her room.

 

When she did, Steven couldn’t shake her. She followed him everywhere; down the boardwalk when he was saying hi to Onion; walking over to Connie’s house; playing video games in his room upstairs. And then finally she asked him to fuse again.  
“Are you sure?” Steven asked. “You seemed to be really upset last time!”  
“I was just… thrilled that we were finally able to fuse!” Pearl said, her eyes shining oddly.  
“O-okay…” Steven replied, seeing past her lie. They went back out to the beach and began their dance.  
This time when Rainbow Quartz got her form it was different. The part of her mind that was Pearl seemed a little strange, a little off, but oddly at peace. The part of her mind that was Steven, however, was on edge.  
In Rainbow Quartz’s mind ahead of them… was Rose Quartz. She chuckled at the stunned form of Rainbow Quartz and the part of Rainbow that was Steven could do nothing but gape. Steven noticed the altered colors of the sky, the way that reality shimmered around Rose, and knew that this wasn’t real. But the part of Rainbow that was Pearl took a step forward. Her form shivered but she stayed together enough to take another step, and another. She ran across the beach and met up with Rose, kneeling in the sand and inhaling sharply.  
“Rose.” Rainbow said.  
“What’s going on?” Rainbow said.  
The Rose in front of them laughed silently, then opened her mouth. Rainbow almost didn’t expect her to say anything, but then she did.  
“Hello, Rainbow,” she said. “It’s good to see you.”  
Rainbow’s form shivered again and Pearl and Steven broke apart again, more naturally this time, both holding hands as they separated, tears on their cheeks.  
“What’s going on?” Steven asked again.  
“That was Rose Quartz,” Pearl said. “She’s still a part of you. You have her gem. And so when the gems fuse with you… we can see her.”  
“Do you wish she was here instead of me?”  
Pearl’s face changed: a flash of hope was carefully repressed and instead her face was arranged in a loving expression. “Of course not, Steven. We all love you!”  
Steven looked away quickly, tears falling onto the sand.  
“You really miss her, don’t you?”  
“Every day,” Pearl sighed.  
The two sat in the sand quietly, Steven trying to think about the mother he’d never known, and Pearl remembering the gem warrior that she’d loved.


End file.
